: About Me

As a writer, I'm deeply influenced by two accidental elements of my life: my early wide travels and extended stay in the United Kingdom.

Born Indian, I and the family moved to Edinburgh when I was six years old as my father studied for a sought-after postgraduate professional qualification. A relatively-brief sojourn before we moved again, this time to Chester in north-west of England, again so Dad could his keep family's bodies and souls together.

This ancient city is steeped in history and time. The site of a Roman fort (Deva), the encompassing Latin walls are virtually as solid and usable as they might have been over two millennia ago. Strolling down the busy main street towards the peace of the riverside, you are surrounded by half-brick houses in magpie tones: the buildings had graced this city for some 500 years.

Some of them, in the main shopping centre, were made in two tiers - the world-renowned Rows. On both levels of the Rows, there were shops catering to the usual variety of modern requirements: fish, tobacco, toffee, toys, watches,

Chester was something of a gateway to the wilds of north Wales so I suppose it was almost inevitable that I'd end up in that starkly-beautiful country at one stage or another - on a school trip, I also managed a week in Switzerland!

It was in Chester I was introduced to my lifelong literary hero, the Bard of Avon, at the tender age of ten ("A Midsummer Night's Dream", I remember well). It was also here that I really laid the foundations of an education and training that would lead to a Bachelor of Arts and a career/vocation in wonlyriting.

Having been brought up literally surrounded by the bricks and mortar of centuries-old history, I am, predictably, very interested in almost all forms of historical-type writing, albeit only of European and Indian concerns thus far.

My passion is ...

Rock music (to the 80's)

I know too much about ...

History

My childhood ambition ...

To be a writer

Why I write ...

Pleasure, profit & to show off (not neccesarily in order)

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

Mary Renault's Alexandriad

My first job ...

Journalist

My best moment ...

Third in regional schools essay contest.

My inspiration ...

My father, Shakespeare and Gandhi.

Sciences > Mathematics The importance of zero in mathematics

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A Big, Fat Zero. The prodigious power of nothing. A paradox that probably doesn't really occur to people until someone with the warped, twisted mind of, say, ex-Monty Pythoner Terry Jones points it out. Interviewed by the B.B.C. for his 2005 programme, "The Power of One" he said Europeans started using the zero in medieval times: ""The numerals we use are from India. We think they are Arabic but they aren't, The Arabs got it from the Indians and we got it from the Arabs. But don't ask me when that was...I'm hopeless with dates. I'd never make an academic." Historians believe the concept wa...

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